WarnerMedia finalizes $43 billion merger with Discovery

WarnerMedia and Discovery have merged. Warner Bros. Discovery will eventually combine the two services into a single streaming service. Warner Bros. Discovery may be able to compete with the likes of Disney+. The company will probably offer a bundle of the two services. CNN+ has a WarnerMedia streaming service.

The CEO of WarnerMedia announced his departure before the merger closed. The plan to release all Warner Bros. movies in theaters on the same day as the COVID-19 outbreak was spearheaded by Kilar, who started running the company in May 2020. At the end of the year, the combined number of subscribers for the two networks was 73.8 million.

Warner Bros. Discovery will have a new leadership structure after the departures of Kilar and several other WarnerMedia executives. David Zaslav is the CEO of Discovery.

Several major media consolidation moves have taken place in recent years. Amazon sealed its purchase of MGM last month. Disney spent $71.3 billion to acquire most of 21st Century Fox a few years back, while Microsoft agreed a $68.7 billion deal to buy the company.

WarnerMedia was spun off by AT&T in a $43 billion deal that would combine it with Discovery. The deal is done and AT&T is out of the content business.